As much as I love k20. It really is not feasible for classing. 180whp in a Miata will put you into E0. Although we beat E0 car this year, it usually isn't that way. Bullet performance E46 dominate this class, and usually finishes very high overall.

 

Honestly the recipe you guys have is very good.

 

Yeah. I'd say so. Add more power and then all of a sudden you start running into problems with things breaking that wouldn't have otherwise... lol

 

Bumped to another class, breaking, gas mileage, brakes, tires, etc. the list goes on and on.

 

If we go back with NA/NB Miatas, it will be with BP blocks. Simply put, it's what we do.

A restricted Rotrex can be made to have a very nice broad hp band but it will never match the breadth or flatness possible with a purpose built turbo system. That we have no ties with any Miata Rotrex vendor any longer and have strong ties with the premier Miata race turbo shop in the country, seals the deal.

To be really prepared for T25, take a few years. Gathering information and experience, testing systems, training personnel. William and I started early 2010 and still weren't as prepared as we would have liked last week.

So any new configuration for 2012 T25 needs to be an outgrowth of stuff we have already done, and we need to start developing those new systems.. now.

The exception is if we are given the opportunity to work with a newly released platform. In which case we will need at least some assistance from the manufacturer of that platform. If say, we got our hands on an FT86 or next gen MX5, we would consider this a development year and not go in expecting a win but hoping for a strong finish/no DNF.

 

I don't doubt that Emilio has the resources to build a 200whp NA miata motor, I just wonder if it would be as reliable has a basically bone stock K20, or as cheap.

I was assuming PTB was in E1, but that's not the case. Basically, any turbo or engine swap is going to put you in E0. I suppose a supercharged car could be built to PTC, or a 170ish whp N/A motor. That is if 949 racing is interested in building an E1 car.

I don't know if we'll be at the 25 Hour next year (I certainly hope so, I'm addicted after one hit...) nor do I have any idea if we go, what we would be taking. I was at the shop yesterday having pipe dreams of preparing our JGTC / Le Mans carbon NSX to challenge Mercer for the overall win. Unfortunately I don't think the team will have the budget or time to do that sort of thing after running a full season of Grand Am...

 

^ That would be amazing. I am sure that there would be a little bit of a learning curve for everyone, but either one of those cars would be amazing, and having a little bit of factory money behind you/us could only help. (Though factory money didn't seem to help some of the teams all that much this year.)

My only request is that whatever it is, we either have 100% bullet proof hubs, or ones that are as fast to change as the Miata has. (Changing hubs wasn't much of a setback when it only adds a few minutes to a stop.)

The low CG of the FT86 would make an amazing platform though, though unless you know a guy who knows everything about boxer motors, it might be a step back for the first year.

 

It would be interesting to see someone seriously try to challenge the Mercer boys, but FWIW we figured that they used about $40k worth of tires just during the race. I think that an overall P1 would cost at least $100k, not including the car or previous testing. I'd love to see the C6r guys come out just to make it a good battle. From what I understand the Mercer team is essentially Flying Lizard. (ok, not quite, but damn close, and some of the same people)

 

I just recently was running a chump car race at Laguna. It was in a 85Golf GTI with a 95 8 2L 8 valve motor. Our first driver went off and hit the tire wall it cracked out the radiator end tank and broke a motor mount dented some fenders. We figure we lost 25 laps getting pulled out of the kitty litter and fixing the thing mainly with the motor mount which we took off a car in the parking lot. We didn’t have a radiator so we just ran. The thing ran flat out for the next 7 hours with an un-pressurized cooling system half full of coolant. Talk about an over engineered cooling system. It died on the last lap with me driving after the fuel pump came loose in the tank. It wasn’t really running right the whole time due to a mix match of ECU’s with the motor swap. It kept on giving it an extremely low rev limit especially 3rd gear. Finished 19 laps off the lead. Pretty fun to drive a light front wheel drive car with a welded front diff I could eat the V8 cars lunch coming off corners.

But somhow I don't view chump car quite like real racing. I want to go racing.

Bob

 

You guys have to remember that this is business for Emilio as much as it is his hobby. They finished 1st and 3rd in E2, finished 8th and 12th? overall. About 90% of the parts on that car can be purchased off of his website. A v8/k20/etc doesn't make very much sense to his business model. The formula they used for the finish this year should increase the business of those products that were used.

For a customer how cool is it seeing a 10 year old miata, just like the one in your driveway going w2w with these uber dollar race cars? Your on the fence between ordering fatcat, afco, or Xida shocks and your friend/forum reminds you that the Xida's won at Thunderhill 25...

 

+1

I must admit I noticed early on than Emilio’s business model seems to be to try and sell stuff that he wants on his personal race car. Not only is that he dam good at Picking the right products with the right features to have a very high bang for the buck performance not just poser **** that looks cool.

Bob

 

I guess that is true. If you do build it, I'm looking forward to seeing the results.

 

^^ This is the bottom line. I'm thrilled that cutting edge ideas from this team will eventually be OTS items available for us to purchase as consumers. This bullet proof hub idea? If when you guys figure it out, the R&D work, design/materials can be produced for all of us to use. Tracking ANY car is an exercise in triage addressing the weak links and 949 is a true leader in the community improving an excellent platform.

I'm not an accountant, but I imagine everything about Crusher's development and the race itself is a tax write-off for 949. We don't want our pal Emilio to be part of that hated 1% do we?

 

Especially this year, he should be able to fully depreciate everything he bought for the car.

(Unless racing works differently than telcos)

 

949 is big enough that I'm sure Emilio has an accountant handling that but I suppose it is important to know if any money was won on the podium finishes and who actually 'owns' Enzo. The whole topic is a huge thread drift that doesn't really matter. The important thing is 949 kicks *** and continues to make amazing parts available to the miata community!

 

I know what you mean. Out there you are w2w, but no matter how serious you try to take it, it is still a bunch of junk cars. It is still a hell of a good time.

 

100%

There was one evening, I think Friday night, that a few of us were talking with Emilio, and one thing that came up is that there is nothing on his car that he doesn't sell, and there is nothing on his site that he hasn't run on his car. If he doesn't like a product, he just won't sell it. So my take is that you can bet that if he sells it, it is probably going to make your car faster/more reliable/better suited for the track if properly used.

As for next year, I never really thought about it until I read his post that sounds a little tongue and cheek, but getting some factory money behind the team SHOULD be a real possibility. After all, we did demolish this year's Mazda factory team. Running an NC or even possibly ND MX5 with factory backing (however big or small) would be epic. And I think that Emilio proved this year that 949 is up to the task. (I just hope that IF it does happen, he is allowed to keep whichever people he chooses.)

 

I think Emilio braking into the NC market with hardcore track products is right up his alley. Brian Goodwin is going to want on that team. Too bad most of the S2000 community is douchers, I'd like to see a team of S2K's.

 

It is now my personal goal to go and do a bunch of events in my car in Cali., and hopefully one day be good enough to drive with the 949 guys. :P. Just sucks all the awesome tracks are so far away :(

 

Yeah, it looks like Brian is pretty deep into the performance NC market already and the S2000 guys are mostly hopeless... so my vote would be to become the leader in 86/BRZ track tuning. Those cars are going to be a huge hit for entry tuner level guys/track days/autoX. Some bolt on power (I/H/E + COBB accessport anyone?) make an easy 215-220whp? XIDA's for the BRZ, make some 5x100 6UL's? lol.